Varney the Vampire eBook

What with his intoxication and the violent exercise
he had taken, Jack was again thoroughly prostrate;
while the admiral could not have looked more astonished
had the evil one himself appeared in propria persona
and given him notice to quit the premises.

He was, however, the first to speak, and the words
he spoke were addressed to Jack, to whom he said,—­

“Jack, you lubber, what do you think of all
that?”

Jack, however, was too far gone even to say “Ay,
ay, sir;” and Mr. Chillingworth, slowly getting
himself up to his feet, approached the admiral.

“It’s hard to say so much, Admiral Bell,”
he said, “but it strikes me that whatever object
this Sir Francis Varney, or Varney, the vampyre, has
in coming into Bannerworth Hall, it is, at all events,
of sufficient importance to induce him to go any length,
and not to let even a life to stand in the way of
its accomplishment.”

“Well, it seems so,” said the admiral;
“for I’ll be hanged if I can make head
or tail of the fellow.”

“If we value our personal safety, we shall hesitate
to continue a perilous adventure which I think can
end only in defeat, if not in death.”

“But we don’t value our personal safety,”
said the admiral. “We’ve got into
the adventure, and I don’t see why we shouldn’t
carry it out. It may be growing a little serious;
but what of that? For the sake of that young
girl, Flora Bannerworth, as well as for the sake of
my nephew, Charles Holland, I will see the end of
this affair, let it be what it may; but mind you,
Mr. Chillingworth, if one man chooses to go upon a
desperate service, that’s no reason why he should
ask another to do so.”

“I understand you,” said Mr. Chillingworth;
“but, having commenced the adventure with you,
I am not the man to desert you in it. We have
committed a great mistake.”

“A mistake! how?”

“Why, we ought to have watched outside the house,
instead of within it. There can be no doubt that
if we had lain in wait in the garden, we should have
been in a better position to have accomplished our
object.”

“Well, I don’t know, doctor, but it seems
to me that if Jack Pringle hadn’t made such
a fool of himself, we should have managed very well:
and I don’t know now how he came to behave in
the manner he did.”

“Nor I,” said Mr. Chillingworth.
“But, at all events, so far as the result goes,
it is quite clear that any further watching, in this
house, for the appearance of Sir Francis Varney, will
now be in vain. He has nothing to do now but
to keep quiet until we are tired out—­a fact,
concerning which he can easily obtain information—­and
then he immediately, without trouble, walks into the
premises, to his own satisfaction.”

“But what the deuce can he want upon the premises?”

“That question, admiral, induces me to think
that we have made another mistake. We ought not
to have attempted to surprise Sir Francis Varney in
coming into Bannerworth Hall, but to catch him as he
came out.”